Toxicity drives facilitation between four bacterial species

Abstract

Competition between microbes is extremely common, with many investing in a wide range of mechanisms to harm other strains and species. Yet positive interactions between species have also been documented. What makes species help or harm each other is currently unclear. Here, we studied the interactions between four bacterial species capable of degrading Metal-Working Fluids (MWF), an industrial coolant and lubricant, which contains growth substrates as well as toxic biocides. We were surprised to find only positive or neutral interactions between the four species. Using mathematical modeling and further experiments, we show that positive interactions in this community are likely due to the toxicity of MWF, whereby each species detoxification benefited the others by facilitating their survival, such that they could grow and degrade MWF better when together. The addition of nutrients, the reduction of toxicity or the addition of more species instead resulted in competitive behavior. Our work provides support to the stress gradient hypothesis by showing how harsh, toxic environments can strongly favor facilitation between microbial species and mask underlying competitive interactions.